June 29, 2010

It's really rather remarkable how much one blog can influence me. I've spoken before about The Happiness Project. The writer there said something that struck me today:

If you try to preserve every opportunity, you can’t move forward.

Yeah, that's me, all right. I feel often that I'm wasting time, time I could be spent doing this thing, that thing. I also have trouble getting started because I'm waiting for the perfect moment, or the perfect person, or the perfect set of supplies or circumstances.

Opportunity cost is the cost related to the next-best choice available to someone who has picked between several mutually exclusive choices

Relatedly, there I also learned the term sunk cost. Both of these ideas were crucial to how I looked at the world.

In traditional microeconomic theory, only prospective (future) costs are relevant to an investment decision. Traditional economics proposes that an economic actor not let sunk costs influence one's decisions, because doing so would not be rationally assessing a decision exclusively on its own merits

I had to learn that there's no point worrying on sunk cost. Once it's gone, it's gone. Wikipedia has an excellent example:

Economists argue that sunk costs are not taken into account when making rational decisions. In the case of the movie ticket, the ticket buyer can choose between the following two end results:

1.Having paid the price of the ticket and having suffered watching a movie that he does not want to see, or;
2.Having paid the price of the ticket and having used the time to do something more fun.

In either case, the ticket-buyer has "paid the price of the ticket" so "that part" of the decision no longer affects the future. If the ticket-buyer regrets buying the ticket, the current decision should be based on whether he wants to see the movie at all, regardless of the price, just as if he were to go to a free movie. The economist will suggest that, since the second option involves suffering in only one way (spent money), while the first involves suffering in two (spent money plus wasted time), option two is obviously preferable.

I love days when I get to go in late and can watch The West Wing on Bravo in the morning. I want President Bartlett to be my president. I want to be like CJ, want to have Amy Gardner's job, and want to work with everyone in that office. And Sam. (Rob Lowe, swoon). I keep forgetting that's Mary Louise Parker because she looks so young. She is ageless. And Marlee Matlin! Everyone was on that show.

My favorite quote from this morning's episode "Women of Qumar"

SAM:The President's being sued.

SAM: The Washington Times' running it under the headline "Bartlet Accused of Contributory Negligence."

June 27, 2010

This was dinner from Saturday night. Amazingly put together, and I even helped! At the top left of the plate is the fresh cold salad we've named Citrus Tuber Salad: turnips and beets from the South of the James farmers market, backyard garden cucumbers and parsley, some orange, honey, olive oil, lime juice, pepper, salt, olive juice, and pine nuts (a last-minute addition that turned out to be perfect).

Here's a close up:

The beets made everything pink

The main dish was a combination of homemade pasta, grilled and marinated chicken, mixed cooked fresh veggies, fennel (the bottom left there, didn't turn out that great).

The food was all complimented so nicely by an acidic Spanish white and then a bottle of sparkling. I can't believe I ate as much as I did, since I ate so much by nibbling while we were cooking.

This is an edited-color photo of a flower I discovered in North Carolina. The flower is a purple-pink, but my crappy camera didn't do it justice, so I edited the tint. It was so so fragrant and soft. I was afraid it didn't grow here but turns out, it's everywhere! I picked these from the tree in the Ellwoods parking lot!

This was dinner from the other weekend: a salad with all kinds of greens from Victory Farms and other yummy veggies from Ellwoods, and my corn salad (corn, red pepper, feta, lime juice, pepper, olive oil)

It was my first time at the South of the James Farmer's Market this weekend. It is arguably the best/most popular one in town. I was feeling a bit car-sick and ill from the heat, and needed sustenance, so I had my first-ever Nate's Taco Truck Taco. I know, it's sacrilegious I've lived in RVA as long as I have without one of their tacos. Well for $3, my chicken taco got eaten in about 3 seconds. I would have liked a little more lettuce, but I always want more lettuce on everything. I went back for seconds after getting my iced coffee from Blanchard's Coffee, but they had gone on a break because of the heat. I was SO mad. So instead I wandered in search of more food, and felt like I might pass out if I didn't eat something. I found a table of someone selling homemade pastries and fresh cold salads and had the most amazing bow-tie pesto pasta salad with fresh fresh cherry red and yellow tomatoes, carrots, and beans. God it hit the spot.

The produce from Victory Farms was amazing and delicious looking and SO MUCH CHEAPER than Kroger. Why am I not buying all my produce here? I may have to start. I'm being turned into a hippie, I swear. Lots of people were selling really scrumptious looking blackberries, but I am holding out for picking access to a backyard bush I know. Oh, and I also had yellow watermelon for the first time. Weirdly, tastes just like regular watermelon.

While there, I also ran into several familiar faces. Wouldn't be Richmond without it.

June 24, 2010

Do something that will make your night. First, read below about Richard Rinaldi's exhibit Touching Strangers. From his site:

Touching Strangers is an ongoing photographic project stemming from my interest in the dynamics of group portraiture. The premise of this work is simple. I meet two or more people on the street who are strangers to each other and to me. I ask them if they will pose for a photograph together with the stipulation that they must touch each other in some manner...

My objective was to introduce an unpredictable variable in a very traditional photographic formula: to create a spontaneous and fleeting relationship between complete strangers in front of my 8 x 10 view camera.

Though these situations involve orchestrated collaborations between subject and photographer, the emotions captured are both genuine and honest. Touching Strangers encourages viewers to think about how we relate physically to one another.

Then, go to this link right now to view his photographs in a slide show, make it full screen.You may have to click to forward the photos.

You could run into some emotional roadblocks today, Taurus. This could be due to a lack of honesty on your part. Make sure you're sticking to the truth at all times. A strong, forceful energy could challenge your ego. Don't be surprised if this force is emotionally highly charged. Conflict is apt to result if you aren't honest about your feelings as soon as they arise.

June 23, 2010

I saw this magazine in the flesh yesterday and may have to go back and pull the pages out of it. The ones online are too small to do it justice. I can't believe myself either, because I don't really like Megan Fox. I think she looks like a tranny most of the time--too severe, too tacky. She's clearly got great bone structure and a great body, and this photoshoot shows it off.

It's so so creepy that the mannequin has her exact face. I'm not sure how they did that. I assumed it was photoshopped, but when you look at the video, you can see the mannequin. Perhaps they tweaked it for the final print version?

I discovered maybe my favorite drink special yet last night at Ipanema. On Tuesdays, they have $2 Mimosas from 9-11 pm. The juices you can get include not just orange, but peach, pear, mango, and pineapple. I got both the pear and peach ones and they were refreshing and delightful. Who would ever ger orange now?

And from the end of the bar, they appear to be using Goya juice, so that's a plus too.

June 22, 2010

(Photos all from Elle Blogs)Anthropology of an American Girl-A Novel by Hilary Thayer Hamann
Seems a little dark, the way I like them: profiles a girl through her life. Rain, bikes, sketching, autumn, relationships

Cum Laude by Cecily von Ziegesar
From the author of Gossip Girl.
Fluff, fun, stories about college life

No Place Like Home-A Memoir in 39 Apartments by Brooke Berman
I like the idea of chornicalling your life through the apt-hunting and moving process. Probably very relatable as a twenty-something. Also, how fab is this coat and cover in general?

One Day by David Nicholls
Romance, growing up, growing old, regret, hearbreak. Perfect for me right now.

June 16, 2010

June 8, 2010

I love that the Internets can give me a pep talk, silly as it is. From Daily Pep.

Recover from hate.Pep Talk: It doesn’t feel that great to hate someone. Yes, some people really suck, but you don’t have to wait for them to change before you start feeling better. If someone truly awful is giving you that hateful feeling, you can take control and change your feelings. In your mind, you can wish that terrible, icky person good fortune and a happy life. You can want for them all the positive things you want for your best friend and, with enough practice, your feelings will follow your wishes. You won’t feel hate; you’ll feel better and that’s all that matters.Today remind yourself: Recover from hate.

I am going to do better in remembering this because people who are evil and cruel and gross don't deserve so much of my mental energy.

June 2, 2010

Dallas Clayton has a blog where of short and clever poetry accompanied by drawings. Here are some recent ones I like.

Success
By Dallas Clayton

Thousands of years of art history
and the safe money
is still on a picture of a naked girl.
-----------------------------------------

Pair
By Dallas Clayton

Deciding
that your greatest fear
is dying alone
will have you shopping
at the bargain bin
more often than you’d care
knee deep in discount fashion,
bent on the chance of exhuming that one irregular gem
that none of the others seemed to catch
because they didn’t have time to dig
-too busy, caught up in
dying alone.
-------------------------------------------

You
By Dallas Clayton

Unlike most words
which dull and fray
with usage
a well-intentioned
“I love you”
seems only to sharpen
growing consistently more effective
refined
through each and every
hurried utterance.
---------------------------------------

Graded
By Dallas Clayton

How do they decide
what information
is worth knowing
and what isn’t?
Like why is the monarch
the only type of butterfly I can name?
And when did I even learn that one?

June 1, 2010

I am in a WEIRD mental headspace right now. I can't talk about it without crying, and damnit if I didn't get teary at work today. I'm not going to say more about it than this, but it's been a harrowing weekend. I drove over 500 miles in less than 36 hours. I slept for about 1 hour on Saturday night, in a chair. My brain and heart are all conflicted and I don't know what I want to do about it. Everything will be okay, but it's very very scary when you think you might lose someone you love. And I'm not sure what's worse really, the idea of losing them to death or the idea that they may never figure out how to be a part of my life again. More or less the same thing. I have things to look forward too, but I can't bring myself to be quite as excited about them as I was before Saturday. I am conflicted.

So I'm going to try very hard not to get overwhelmed and overanalyze everything and just take it one day at a time.